Creating structured data about WWI military units

Another huge task!

The problem

It's currently surprisingly difficult to answer the question 'where was this specific unit at this time?'. Experienced military historians may know the answer off-hand, and will certainly know where to look to find out, but how do novice researchers figure it out?

And to make things harder, each country's military hierarchy is different. Some armies, like the British, have long histories that are reflected in the complex structures and names of their military units. Each country responded to the need to rapidly expand their armies in slightly different ways. Some countries no longer exist in the same form - the Australian and New Zealand armies fought together at first; Irish soldiers fought for the United Kingdom and the 'Indian' army covers many contemporary Asian countries.

The solution

Structured data!

Devise data structures to describe battalions and the military hierarchies around them; populate them.

The process

Having limited time, initial data structures were proposed quite quickly and iteratively updated to deal with relevant data about different armies.

An overview of the process can be seen by reviewing template and template talk pages or contact Mia for more information).

How you can help

Review the current pages in light of data you've recorded about battalions in the past.

Suggest updates or request clarification on existing data structures